Identity diffusion as a psychological and psychopathological phenomenon. A non-binary religious person case

Abstract

The article analyzes the problem of psychological and psychiatric affiliation of identity diffusion as illustrated by the clinical case of 17-year-old Samiha, a girl with an Arabic name who decided to change it to the Korean unisex name Ha-neul. The patient considered herself to be a non-binary person, but sought help at a psychiatric care facility due to suicidal thoughts/tendencies and self-harming behavior rather than gender dysphoria. The article presents a differential diagnosis between the identity diffusion included in the diagnostic criteria for borderline personality disorder, and autopsychic and somatopsychic depersonalization. It is concluded that identity diffusion may be both a psychological phenomenon and a psychopathological symptom. This requires a deeper understanding and inclusion of the new symptom in the psychospathology catalogue. The article suggests that it is important for modern psychopathology theory to keep track of social postmodernist changes as they led to emergence of a new subdiscipline, Neo-Psychopathology, in psychiatry.

Keywords

identity diffusion / gender dysphoria / non-binary / depersonalization / Neo-Psychopathology

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